Civil War Living History Encampment

Date: May 4-6, 2012
Location:Framingham’s Centre Common

Kick off spring with a Living History Civil War Encampment on Framingham’s Center Common. From Friday afternoon when Union and Confederate soldiers set up camp to Sunday afternoon, the Common will be transformed into a tableaux of soldier’s tents, field hospitals, front line canon, drills, and a host of other activities. Professional actors and actresses will mingle throughout the camp taking on the personas of local and national figures of the period and on Sunday a Ladies Auxiliary Tea at the Village Hall will bring visitors back to the home front. Special ceremonies around the town’s Civil War memorial, the Edgell Library will bring visitors in to this magnificent structure for the Framingham History Center’s exhibition, Framingham Remembers…The Civil War. There will be book signings throughout the weekend with local authors who have brought Framingham’s soldiers to life through recently published works. Please keep checking back to see updated information about events offered during our encampment!

Framingham Remembers...The Civil War

As the 150th anniversary of the Civil war approaches, we have a number of programs and events planned for the next two years. Click here to see the entire calendar of events.

Be Swift My Soul - A Civil War Salon with Julia Ward Howe

Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012
Time: 1:30 – 3:00
Location: Heineman Ecumenical Center, Framingham State College*

Join Libby Frank as she portrays Julia Ward Howe - a woman who produced perhaps the most stirring and recognizable lines of music in U.S. history. Julia was transformed from a wealthy New York belle to a Boston writer and abolitionist in the decades leading up to the Civil War. As the wife of reformer Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind - she entertained and visited with poets, politicians, reformers, writers and exceptional women.

Libby will present Julia as the host of a salon that might have included H.W. Longfellow, Edgar Alan Poe, Florence Nightingale, Margaret Fuller, Charles Sumner and Charles Dickens among others. These acquaintances along with her travels abroad, her love of language and music all gave birth to the compelling verses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic which were first sung in Framingham at the Plymouth Church nearly 150 years ago – February 22, 1862.

Music of the era will be performed. Refreshments served following the performance at the Alumni House, 42 Adams Rd., Framingham